Son of the Sable Night
by Ponderosa
Summary: 1x2x1. Yaoi. AU. Heero POV. Hunted by otherworldly beings and aided by a mysterious stranger and a man who's vowed to kill him, Heero struggles to unlock his past. (Ch 6: Duo is taking Heero to see Zechs, but the trip there isn't without obstacles...)
1. And Never Wake to Feel

Title: Son of the Sable Night   
Author: Ponderosa (ponderosa@dragonworld.com)   
Pairing: 1xR 1+2 

Archive: Take it if you want it, just tell me if you do!   
Warning: [R] Yaoi. AU. Heero POV. At a party, Heero makes eye contact with a mysterious and potentially dangerous man who becomes all he can think about. (Ch 1: 1xR. Nothing explicit...as if I could write that.)   
Disclaimer: Characters belong to their respective copyright owners, like Sunrise/Sotsu/Bandai. Plot, if you can call it that, belongs to me. 

Note: **Yaoi**. Meaning: **guys with guys**. Don't like, then don't read.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
**Son of the Sable Night**   
by Ponderosa 

There was something different about the man standing by the gilded brass fireplace; something that set him apart from the other guests, and it was more than just the incredible length of his hair. 

I chatted up a blonde girl as I tried to put my finger on exactly what it was about the man that made me feel...I wasn't even sure what it was that he made me feel. Anxiety? Fear? Desire? Maybe we had met before and the odd tingling on my skin was merely trying to tell me that I should recognize him. I hoped that was all it was. 

He lifted his head and caught me watching him. Our eyes locked together for a moment and I turned away when he dipped his chin in a slight nod. 

"It's warm in here, let's take a walk," I said to the blonde. 

I needed to get out of the house and away from the man. He had nodded at me and that could've meant one of any number of things; most of which, I didn't care to dwell on. 

"Let me tell my friends I'm leaving," the girl said. 

I waited as she waved to get the attention of a pair of girls across the room and mouthed the words, "I'm leaving to get laid." Relena Dorlain, as she had introduced herself, was an optimist. 

"So where do you live?" I asked, once we were outside of the too-warm house and away from the academics that made for an amazingly boring party. 

She snuggled closer to my side. "Not too far from here." 

We started walking in a direction she chose and spoke for a while about how I had gotten invited to the party and other requisite nonsense that neither of us really cared about. 

Relena pressed even closer against me as our steps led us near an intersection; a subtle hint that she wanted me to head to the right. Other than a dog barking in the distance, the neighborhood was quiet. The streets were narrow, the sidewalks low curbed, and to complete the picture, there was a line of elms interrupted regularly by the sort of faux lantern street light that looked pretty, but only made the area around them seem darker instead of lighting up anything. 

In order to turn the conversation away from myself, I asked her if she was a student. 

"Environmental Ethics. I graduate this year," she said. "You?" 

"I've called myself a writer," I replied. 

"Would I have read something of yours?" she asked. 

I smiled slightly. "Possibly." 

"So what sort of writing?" 

She slowed down a bit; we were getting close to her building. 

"Poetry. Prose. Anything that struck my fancy at the time," I replied. 

She stopped in front of a duplex covered in thick redwood shingles. "Recite me something from a poem you've written," Relena said. 

"I would have given her the stars had she asked...or the moon. I would have..." 

"...given her my heart. Yet never did she ask and never did I offer. We became the greatest couple that never would be," Relena finished for me and laughed. "I'm an EE major, but that doesn't mean I didn't take any English courses. You certainly picked an old and obscure poem to plagiarize. Next time, I expect to hear something you really wrote." 

I chuckled softly and shrugged. 

"If you didn't guess, this is my stop. Are you hungry, Heero?" she asked, snapping open the top of her purse to pull out her keys. "You arrived after the dinner half of the party and I didn't see you eat anything." 

"I'm feeling a little hungry," I admitted. 

"Want to come in for some tea and cookies?" she took a slow, backwards, step up onto her porch and smiled invitingly. 

I accepted her invitation by following her up the steps. Relena pulled open the outer screen door, the aluminum frame rattled as she held it open with her elbow to slide her key into the lock. I lipped at her hair and rested my hands on her hips. I scanned the shadows and narrowed my eyes as I found what I was looking for. 

Her house had bars on the windows and the screen door would rattle an alarm, I told myself as we stepped inside. 

Relena stooped down to pick up a small white Pomeranian that had scrabbled off the couch to bark wildly at me. She apologized about the dog's uncharacteristic behavior and told me all about how it normally liked strangers as she scratched behind its ears and led me into a small kitchen. 

"What kind of tea would you like?" 

"Anything is fine, anything with caffeine is preferable," I answered. 

The dog refused to stop snarling at me and Relena locked it in a small, adjacent laundry room. I inspected the eclectic clutter. Although it was full of souvenir spoons and racks of unique Tabasco sauce bottles, the kitchen looked empty of foodstuffs and I suspected that the stove was used more often to light cigarettes than cook anything. 

"Irish breakfast tea?" She set the box down on the counter then reached up into the cupboard again; the sweater she wore pulled tight against her chest and I could see the white of her bra through the weave. 

"Let's just skip the tea and cookies," I said into her ear. 

She agreed with a moan.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
The sex was rough and I left her too weak to ask me to stay. 

I rarely had so little control and I blamed it on the man at the party. The man who had followed us discreetly and watched as I nipped at Relena's neck while she fumbled for her keys. The man who nodded at me again from the shadows in acknowledgement. The man who knew what I was. 

I wished I could say the same about him. 

Relena's screen door clattered its goodbye and I headed back through the residential streets towards the neighborhood where I was renting a house. I expected the man to melt out of each shadow, to approach me with those dangerous violet eyes that promised the end of my existence. 

I was a little disappointed when I made it home with no incident. 

Wufei was going to laugh at me, when I told him I was lusting over a man that was, in all odds, out to kill me.   
  


* * *

TBC! 


	2. The Day's Disdain

Title: Son of the Sable Night   
Author: Ponderosa (ponderosa@dragonworld.com)   
Pairing: 1xR, 1+2 

Archive: Take it if you want it, just tell me if you do!   
Warning: [R] Yaoi. AU. Heero POV. At a party, Heero makes eye contact with a mysterious and potentially dangerous man who becomes all he can think about. (Chapter 2, in which Heero makes another visit to Relena and his stalker meets his housemate Wufei.)   
Disclaimer: Characters belong to their respective copyright owners, like Sunrise/Sotsu/Bandai. Plot, if you can call it that, belongs to me. 

Note: **Yaoi**. Meaning: **guys with guys**. Don't like, then don't read.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
**Son of the Sable Night**   
by Ponderosa 

"Tea?" Wufei asked as he stood up. 

"No." I gritted my teeth and wondered how long Wufei had been in the room. 

I shook the newspaper I was reading and folded it back so I could focus on a particularly interesting article. A few minutes later, I heard the microwave beep in the kitchen, and then Wufei was back. He glided around the edge of the couch and pressed a cup into my hand. The ceramic mug bordered on being too hot to hold and I automatically brought it to my lips to gauge by the steam how long it would be before it was cool enough to drink. 

"Still thinking about tall, dark, and handsome?" he asked, draping himself over a padded leather chair that matched the tacky southwestern motif of the couch I occupied. 

"No." I had been right, he had laughed at me when I told him everything last night. 

He smirked. "You're a terrible liar." 

I eyed him. He had one elbow propped on the low backrest and his mug of tea rested on his upper thigh, held in place by his forefinger. He looked like he always did: catlike, with glittering eyes and a deceptively languid pose. 

I was a magnet for attractive dangerous men. 

"You're looking at me as if you're hungry," he said, lifting his chin slightly and undoing the top button of his black silk shirt. 

"No. I'm looking at you and wondering why I put up with you." 

"This mystery man bothers you so much, why?" He rolled his head to the side and peered between narrowed lashes at me. 

"Because he knows what I am." 

Wufei smirked again. "Exactly." His fingers curled around his mug, twisting it around until his thumb hooked under the handle. 

"Exactly what?" I snarled. 

"That's exactly why you put up with me," said Wufei. "And don't tell me you've forgotten about why _I_ put up with _you_." He lifted his tea up in a mock toast then sipped from it slowly, dark eyes gleaming over the lip. 

I amended my earlier thought. 

I was a magnet for attractive dangerous men that wanted to kill me. 

The article I had been reading, about a recent rash of aggressive dog attacks, became far less interesting and I drained the tea in two swallows to calm my nerves.   
  
  
-=*=-  
  
  
I stood on Relena's porch and pressed a small white button nestled beneath a black, flip-top, mailbox. A soft chime sounded inside the house. 

Barking, muttered curses and what sounded like a book falling to the floor preceded the front door being yanked open. A petite girl with short dark hair sized me up through the screen and asked me what I wanted. The little white Pomeranian cradled against her chest snarled at me. 

"Is Relena home?" I asked. 

"You must be Heero," she said. I nodded and she pushed open the screen door. "Come on in." 

"Thanks." 

"No prob. She's upstairs," the girl said. She crouched to pick up a tattered novel off the floor and settled down in a beanbag to resume reading. 

I took the stairs two at a time; it was more comfortable that way. I wasn't precisely tall or long-legged, but the steps were a bit shallow, and when I carried Relena up them, three days ago, I had stumbled more than once. 

"Heero. I didn't expect you to show up." Relena appeared in the doorway to her room and surveyed me. She assumed a cool defensive posture. She was wearing an outfit very similar to the one she wore the other night: white v-necked sweater with elbow length sleeves, woolen knee highs and chunky shoes; only this time, her skirt was chocolate coloured vinyl instead of nice girl plaid and she had a scarf wound about her neck. 

"I would've called, but you didn't give me your number," I said. 

"I'm such an idiot," she said and her body lost its rigidity. She leaned her shoulder against the doorframe and smiled apologetically at me. "I was upset the past couple days and its all because I flaked out after that incredible..." she blushed and fingered the fold of her scarf. "I'm so sorry." 

"You don't need to apologize," I said. I stepped closer to her and pushed her fingers away from her throat. I fingered the soft cashmere and tugged the scarf loose until the smooth skin of her neck was exposed. "I could've hunted down your number." 

Relena closed her eyes and murmured another breathy sorry as she twisted to prop her back against the doorframe. I rested my forearm just above her head and rested my weight on it as I whispered words of forgiveness into the bangs that were trimmed in a neat line across her forehead. 

"I've got a SETA meeting in an hour," she said, when I brushed my lips against her jaw. 

"You can be a little late," I replied. 

"Just don't leave me so faint I can't concentrate. I don't know what you did last time, but I mean you had to carry me up the stairs and I could hardly get myself out of bed the next morning," she babbled as I pulled her into the room and closed the door. "That was an amazing orgasm, although things were a little rough. I think we broke one of the salt shakers and you left a couple marks on my neck that I..." 

"It'll be different this time. I'll go slower," I assured her and shut her up with a kiss.   
  
  
-=*=-  
  
  
I didn't lose control this time and Relena gave me a dreamy smile as I got dressed. 

"Your meeting is twenty minutes away," I reminded her. 

"Right..." 

"If you want me to call, I'll need your number." I tucked the tail of my belt under the frayed loops on my jeans, then sat down on a padded stool to pull on my shoes. 

She slid out of bed and scrawled the number on a slip of paper torn from the edge of a magazine page. 

I took it from her and stuffed it in my pocket, then remembered to give her a kiss and a promise to call and make arrangements for something substantial like a dinner date. 

Her dark haired friend glanced up as I descended the stairs. She was still holding the dog, petting it with one hand while holding her book up with the other. 

'Interview with the Vampire.' 

I almost laughed. 

"Some guy came here looking for you," she said, and my foot hesitated for a second before I regained my composure and stepped off the stairs. 

"Was he Chinese?" 

"Didn't look it. Tall, good-looking, long hair in a braid," she gestured with the hand holding her book, "I told him you were _busy_ upstairs. 

"He said he'd call you later tonight," she said. Having given me the message, she propped her elbow on her thigh again, splayed her book open, and went back to ignoring me. 

"Actually, Hilde's wrong," a quiet, but decidedly not soft, female voice floated into the room as I headed to the door. A slim girl with light blonde hair sauntered in and lit up a cigarette; she put it to her lips and spoke around it, "He said he'd call _on_ you later tonight." 

"Whatever," the girl with the book muttered. 

I thanked both of them before I left.   
  
  
-=*=-  
  
  
I spent the rest of the night holed up in a diner and when I did head back home, a few hours before sunrise, I waited for a long time before I walked in. 

I didn't feel safe until I was in my room. 

"Your stalker is a nice guy." 

"Shit. Wufei." I spotted him half leaning against the window with both legs crossed at the ankle and his palms resting on the windowsill. "How long have you been there." 

"Long enough to watch you get undressed." 

I snatched a fresh pair of underwear from my dresser and glared at him. 

"As I was saying, nice guy. You weren't kidding when you said he was easy on the eyes." 

"So he did show up. When?" 

"Showed up around nine and left long before you slunk back in." 

"What did he want." 

"We didn't talk much." 

"What do you mean?" 

Wufei grinned. 

"He came for me and settled for you," I sneered to hide the irrational surge of jealousy that flared up in me. 

"No, actually he came for me," Wufei stretched. As he pushed himself to his feet, I tried to dissect his words to see if he meant that entirely as a lewd pun or was serious. The blinds covering the window returned to their original position with a wobbling snap and the feeble light of pre-dawn ghosted around the surrounding wall. 

"You were right, Heero," the Chinese man padded over to me and leveled his gaze with mine. 

"About what?" 

"Maxwell will probably kill you." 

I narrowed my eyes and waited for Wufei to dole out more information. As much as I wanted to wring it out of him, I'd learned long ago that he only did things on his terms. At least now I had a name. 

"Orders are I'm back in business again too," he said. 

Well shit. I shifted my weight as I prepared to defend myself. I was wearing socks and the smooth hardwood floor was not going to be very cooperative if I wanted to try and kick Wufei's legs out from under him. 

"Don't worry, our bargain still holds," he said and reached behind his head to tighten his ponytail. "You've got ninety eight days until you meet my sword." 

Nine years ago, when Wufei had me pinned to the wall of a warehouse with the blade of his sword at my neck, we had made a deal. I'd pay him a hefty sum, play nice with the boys and girls I fed on and allow him to observe me at his discretion; in return he wouldn't lay a finger on me for a decade. 

At some point we trusted each other enough to become lovers and he'd told me that it might not look like he'd have to kill me at all. At first I took it as the kind of empty promise one says when they're vulnerable and would come to regret. Over the years I concluded that Wufei was never vulnerable and I doubted he could feel regret. Until yesterday, I'd also foolishly concluded that he really was off the hunt. I had been lulled into a sense of false security, when, after he decided to stop coming to my bed, he never dropped back into the same routine of tracking my every move and casually pointing out how many more days I had to live. 

It had been nice while it lasted. 

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Wufei said, cupping my cheek and letting his fingers slip across my chin and land momentarily on my naked shoulder before he bared his teeth in a grin and left. 

The bastard was always so cryptic.   
  
  
-=*=-  
  
  
As I lay in bed, I thought about what Wufei had told me. If there was such a thing as mental indigestion; I had it now. 

'Orders are...' 

This was the first time he'd ever mentioned that he had been hunting me for anything other than his own personal pleasure. 

'Ninety eight days...' 

God. Had it been that long? The years had passed so quickly. 

'The enemy of my enemy...' 

Was he referring to me? Or to this 'Maxwell' person? 

I can't pinpoint when I stopped worrying and started falling asleep, but my descent into slumber was broken by a full body jolt. My eyes flared open and my teeth ached as I sucked in a quick breath of the chill, early morning air. 

Nine years ago... It had been nine years ago that Wufei and I had made our bargain. 

I certainly looked no different, but neither did he. 

Why hadn't I ever noticed before that time affected him the same way it affected me, which is to say, not at all.   
  


* * *

TBC! 


	3. Still Let Me Sleep

Title: Son of the Sable Night   
Author: Ponderosa (ponderosa@dragonworld.com)   
Pairing: 1xR, 1+2, Prior 5x1 

Archive: Take it if you want it, just tell me if you do!   
Warning: [R] 1xR, 1+2. Yaoi. AU. Vampirism. Heero POV. With death guaranteed by Wufei's hands in three months, or by the violet eyed man that is hunting him, Heero is trapped in a Catch-22. (Ch. 3: Heero is sleeping less and growing more obsessed and more paranoid.)   
Disclaimer: Characters belong to their respective copyright owners, like Sunrise/Sotsu/Bandai. Plot, if you can call it that, belongs to me. 

Note: **Yaoi**. Meaning: **guys with guys**. Don't like, then don't read.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
**Son of the Sable Night**   
by Ponderosa 

"Eighty three," Wufei said to me this afternoon. 

"Piss off," was my reply. 

I had grown increasingly paranoid and was getting less rest, which meant I was seeing more of Relena in order to keep my strength up. 

And the longhaired man, Maxwell, was still following me. He never made a move and always watched me from a distance, giving me a mocking smile and a slight nod whenever I spotted him. I had no choice but to try and ignore him. 

My pact with Wufei barred me from taking a life. 

In a moment of weakness, I had bargained away the majority of my power for a brief stay of execution. Even if I could break an oath sworn and sealed by my blood, Wufei would kill me before I could slip back into my old pattern of feeding and flight. He was too good of a predator to let me get very far. Damn him. 

On my way to Relena's, I made a detour and stopped in the diner where I'd hid the first night when I knew, for certain, that I was being hunted. 

I took a seat on one of the padded stools lined with chrome and upholstered in fire engine red. It took me a few minutes before I could flag down the waitress. When I did, she stopped in front of me and tapped a false nail on the glossy counter while flashing me a smile. 

"Coffee, cutie?" she asked. Her nametag said Crystal, but she looked more like a Susan. 

I shook my head. "Soup please. To go." 

She rattled off a list of what they had left, since the senior dinner crowd had just left, and gave her opinion on what she thought was the best of the lot. 

When her eyes shifted to the right of me, all the muscles in my neck and shoulders tensed up. The padded seat of the stool next to me whistled as someone sat down. As in a movie theatre, common courtesy dictates that one never sits down next to a stranger unless there are no other empty seats and the counter was deserted, save for an old man hunched over a plate of meatloaf down at the very end. 

"Coffee please; black," said a very smooth, very pleasant, tenor voice. 

I didn't turn to look at him and every fiber of my being screamed for me to run. 

"Sure thing, cutie. Let me just get this order taken care of first," Crystal drawled. She looked a bit taken aback at the man's choice of seating since I made no move to acknowledge him. 

From the corner of my eye, I could see the cuff of a maroon cable knit sweater pushed halfway to the man's elbow. His arm looked fairly thin, sinewy and lean, and tapered down to a finely boned wrist encircled by a silver watch with a tan leather band that accented the way his large hands flared out. 

I watched out of the corner of my eye as his long, beautiful fingers picked up a butter knife from the setting on the counter. Would he try and stab me with it? I braced my foot on the bumper rail running under the counter. He propped it upright and pinched either side of the blade, sliding his slim fingers down the length of it, then reversing it and repeating the process. 

I was mesmerized, until instead of propping it on the surface of the counter again, the man flipped the knife into the air. I jumped to my feet and raised a hand to deflect the toss. 

The old man at the far end of the diner, dropped his fork onto his plate and Crystal stared at me with the paper bag containing my order clutched in one hand. 

"You're very jumpy," said Maxwell. He didn't look at me, although I'm certain he knew how I must have looked; standing there, half crouched, with a hand in front of my face like a paranoid escapee from the nuthouse, while he innocently balanced the scarred piece of cutlery on the back of his knuckles. 

I regained my composure and pulled a crumpled twenty out of my pocket and tossed it towards the waitress. She set the bag down and stepped back as if she expected me to pull a gun next and order her to empty the till. 

"Keep the change," I said. 

"Say hello to the girls for me would you, Heero," the braided man said. He flicked his wrist and flipped his hand over, catching the butter knife in his palm. He lifted his chin and twisted his head to the side just far enough that I got a good look at one violet eye peering at me through a veil of heavy lashes. "Give my regards to Wufei as well." 

I left. Quickly.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
The slap of my shoes on the sidewalk was faster than usual as I tried to get as much distance between me and death personified. Getting away from my own thoughts was not as easy. 

I kept picturing those large hands, with their long fingers that sported smooth, rounded nails that peeked, ever so slightly, above each calloused tip. Treize had hands like that. Musician's hands... Artist's hands... Hands capable of subtle movements that could inspire poets and warriors alike. 

Only, Treize's hands were reduced to ash years ago. I had found the remains of the man who had been my creator, with an Eastern blade buried in his breast. 

The same blade that would claim me in eighty-three days if Maxwell didn't take me first. 

That thought in my mental dialogue made me shiver for more than one reason. It got me thinking about those hands again and how they would feel gliding over my skin, digging into my ass, clawing against my back, stroking my chest, touching me, caressing me, making me forget what I was and why I had forsaken love for an eternity of emptiness. 

What plagued me more than his hands, was the fact that I couldn't remember ever wanting someone so much. Was it all a perverse desire to taunt death...or to subconsciously invite it? It hadn't been that way with Wufei, but in all fairness he hadn't been actively hunting me at the time and there had always been a barrier between us. At some level, I'd always resented that he had killed the man who still had so much to teach me. 

I often wondered if that was the reason he gave me an option in that warehouse; ten years to prove to him that I might be a worthy opponent. I usually convinced myself that was nothing but a fantasy and that I was just a little experiment to him: see how the fledgling struggles to survive when he was pushed out of the nest early and now his wings were clipped.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
When I got to Relena's, I was feeling more stressed and more paranoid than ever before. Adrenaline and desire was burning my blood and I stabbed the buzzer impatiently until Hilde answered the door. 

"Hey," was all she said as she let me in. 

The brunette wandered away and I headed towards the stairs. I bounded up them, taking three at a time, and when I got to the second floor I discovered an obstacle waiting for me outside Relena's door. 

"You!" Dorothy snarled and advanced on me. 

"I'm here to see Relena," I said calmly, hoping to avoid whatever storm was brewing. 

Her voice turned to ice and she took another step closer to me, "I know that you asshole." 

I stayed my ground and held up the bag I was carrying as if it were some sort of shield or ward that would keep her a safe distance away. 

No such luck. She looked at the bag and got even more angry. 

Dorothy stabbed a finger accusingly at my chest and hissed venomously, "I know exactly what you are and I know what you're doing to Relena." 

Well shit.   
  


* * *

TBC!   
Endnotes: I know the chapters are short -_-;; Gomen. They're written that way for a reason to match with the chapter titles. Besides, it means that everything gets posted with more regularity. So thats good, ne? :P 


	4. Embracing Clouds in Vain

Title: Son of the Sable Night   
Author: Ponderosa (ponderosa@dragonworld.com)   
Pairing: 1xR, 1+2, Prior 5x1 

Archive: Take it if you want it, just tell me if you do!   
Warning: [R] 1xR now 1x2x1. Yaoi. AU. Vampirism. Heero POV. With death guaranteed by Wufei's hands in three months, or by a mysterious violet eyed Hunter, Heero is trapped in a Catch-22. (Ch. 4: Unable to feed off Relena, Heero is left vulnerable by his hunger.)   
Disclaimer: Characters belong to their respective copyright owners, like Sunrise/Sotsu/Bandai. Plot, if you can call it that, belongs to me. 

Note: **Yaoi**. Meaning: **guys with guys**. Don't like, then don't read.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
**Son of the Sable Night**   
by Ponderosa 

Dorothy stabbed a finger accusingly at my chest and hissed venomously, "I know exactly what you are and I know what you're doing to Relena." 

Well shit.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
It was time to try and play dumb. "How's she feeling?" 

"Fuck you." 

I let the insult slide off me. 

"Get out." The slim blonde thrust her arm out and pointed at the stairs; I slapped her arm away. I was too hungry to play these games. 

"I'm going to see Relena, move aside." 

For a second, Dorothy looked as if she would back down, then she shoved me. Determined girl. 

"If you won't let me deliver this to Relena, then fine," I said and dropped the bag on the floor. The bag exploded and thick, green, split pea soup splattered over our shoes. 

She was staring at the carpet stunned as I stepped in and tipped her chin up, "Will you offer yourself?" 

Dorothy made no sign that she had even heard me, then whispered, "You brought soup?" Her eyes remained downcast for a moment before they lifted and met my own. "I thought you were bringing her more drugs." 

I fought down my hunger and recognized, with relief, that the girl had misunderstood my role in Relena's deteriorating health. 

"I brought her Vitamin C caplets the last time I was here," I said, dropping my hand from Dorothy's chin. "She's been complaining about feeling under the weather the past couple weeks." 

"Heero, I'm sorry. I just thought you," she stammered and a faint blush stained her cheeks. "I mean, Relena, she's been feeling weak and sleeping a lot lately. Sometimes she doesn't even get up in the morning and misses half her classes." 

"It just seems like she feels worse after you come by... Let me clean this up," she said, crouching down. She picked up the Styrofoam bowl in one hand and used its thin plastic lid to scoop as much of the spilled soup back into it. 

"It's probably because she wastes a lot of energy trying to fool me into believing that she's feeling alright," I said. 

"Heero?" Relena's door creaked open and she stepped out into the hall. She had one hand keeping the front of a white bathrobe closed and the other pressed against the wall to help her stand. Her voice wavered and she looked between me and her friend, "Dorothy? What's going on?" 

"Oh Relena, please forgive me. I was just saying hello to Heero and clumsy me, I spilled the soup he brought you," Dorothy said, continuing to clean up the mess. 

"I'm not hungry anyway," Relena said. "Thank you for thinking of me though, Heero." She smiled at me. 

I stepped past Dorothy and gathered Relena into a gentle hug to support her weight and pressed a kiss into her hair. This would be the last time I could feed off her. I'd need a new host. 

"Feeling any better?" I asked as I led her back into her bedroom and closed the door. 

"A little. I've been sleeping almost all day," she pulled away from me, arousal giving her a boost of vitality. "I'd feel better if you joined me in my bed." 

She let go of the robe and it split to reveal the creamy flawless curves of her body. I pushed it off her shoulders and lowered her to the bed, whispering soft promises and nonsense before I took as much of her energy as I could without killing her.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
Relena didn't have enough strength for me to do more than take the very edge off the dizzying need that swirled around my head and when I stepped out on the street, everything felt slow and thick. 

The lack of focus persisted as I walked to the nearest bus stop and caught a late run in to one of the less reputable parts of town. By the time I stepped off the bus, I had control of my senses again and I prowled the darkened streets in search of a suitable target. 

None of the whores I passed were desirable in the least. When I crossed into the territory spotted with hustlers, a few promising men caught my eye. 

I shrugged off the few that approached me and arrowed towards a thickly muscled Hispanic man who didn't look the sort that tricked purely for cash. The tip of the cigarette hanging on his lips glowed red as he took a deep drag and he checked me out as it became obvious that he was the one I wanted. 

"Have a place nearby?" I asked. I put my hand in my pocket and eased out the corners of a few twenties to show that, although I was on foot, I wasn't broke. 

"I don't bottom," he warned as he jerked a thumb towards the neon sign of a motel that blinked off and on a block away. 

I nodded and smiled slightly, "That's fine. Over there looks good." 

The man dropped his cigarette and ground the butt into the pavement. He fell into step beside me and asked, "You have a name?" 

"Not important," I said. 

He tucked his hands into his pockets and didn't say another word until we got to the motel, and then, only to ask the clerk at the desk for a specific room and repeat the amount quoted, as if I hadn't heard the clerk just fine on my own. 

I paid and the clerk snapped a key down on the counter. The hustler took it and led me down the row of rooms to number 13. I wondered idly if the superstition about building floors held true for rooms as well. 

"I'm not looking for anything special," I said as he unlocked the door and pushed it open. 

"Gotcha," the man said and locked the door once we were inside. 

The place was cheap, but at least the linen looked clean. The walls were papered with the same shade of green, as the soup I had gotten for Relena, and the carpet was threadbare, orange shag. A slightly curved, diamond shaped piece of smoked glass covered the bulb in the center of the ceiling and completed the vintage porn set look of the place. I toed my sneakers off and the hustler sat down on the edge of the double bed to watch me as he began undressing as well. 

"Make sure you enjoy yourself," I said as I peeled my shirt off. 

"No problem. You've got a tight little body," he grinned and swept his dark eyes across my chest. A look of nervousness wiped his smile away, "Hey, you're legal right?" 

"Trust me. I'm older than I look," I said and looked him straight in the eye as I unbuttoned the fly of my jeans. 

"Alright," he said and licked his lips. 

The Hispanic man leaned forward to resume unlacing his boots and I could feel the waves of arousal coming from him; I drank them in greedily. 

I was pushing my jeans down my hips, when the door splintered inward and a tall figure burst in. I backpedaled automatically and the denim around my knees unbalanced me. I fell heavily, but managed to land in a roll. 

If the hustler hadn't snatched his boots off the floor and held them from the laces, ready to swing them in defense, I would've thought that perhaps he was working with someone and planning to rob me. 

"I've been looking for you," the tall intruder said casually. His eyes were fixed on me and ignored the other man as he grabbed up his shirt and fled. 

Just as with the small amount of strength I had leeched from Relena, the taste I had gotten from the hustler only left me dizzy and wanting more. I managed to get one leg free from my jeans and scrambled to put the bed between us as the tall man reached over his shoulder and drew a gleaming longsword from behind his back. 

"Forsaken no longer," he intoned. The dim light, from the single overhead fixture in the room, gleamed along the edge of his sword and I could see the blade reflected in the pure emerald of his eyes. 

"Heero!" 

The shout startled me, but the swordsman showed no emotion; he simply swung around, coolly ignoring me, and concentrated on the new threat. He was the epitome of cold professionalism. 

The haze of hunger darkened my vision, but I swiftly realized it was Maxwell's lean frame that was silhouetted in the doorway. He held a matte black pistol aimed at the Hunter and his mouth was set in a grim line. 

"Duo," the Hunter said. 

"Trowa." 

"Keep out of this," the Hunter replied flatly. He lifted his blade before him as if it had a chance at deflecting a bullet. 

Maxwell's finger tightened on the trigger and the same mocking smile that haunted my dreams replaced the dark look on his face, "You know I can't do that." 

The tall Hunter had his back to me, but by the slight change in his posture, I wondered if he wasn't a bit saddened by the other man's words. Then the muscles in his neck corded and, as he leapt forward with a graceful lunge aimed at Maxwell's chest, he said, "We do what we must." 

Two shots rang out. The first bullet sparked off the Hunter's blade, knocking the thrust wide and the second hit him in the shoulder. He staggered back from the force and his sword fell from nerveless fingers. 

"Give my regards to Quatre," Maxwell said quietly as he fired another round. 

The Hunter's head whipped back as the bullet pierced his skull. 

My vision was beginning to swim and even if I wanted to, I didn't have the strength to try and flee. I blinked furiously to focus and saw the Hunter's body crumple in slow motion, then disappear in a bright flash of light before it hit the ground. 

That was unexpected. 

"Heero," Maxwell holstered his gun at the small of his back and rushed over to me. "Can you move? We've got to get out of here, the cops will be here soon." 

I was confused. Wasn't he going to kill me? Why wasn't he taking advantage of my weakness? 

The braided man slipped an arm under me and cursed when he saw my state of undress. He let me slide back down to the floor and grabbed my calf, lifting my foot and shoving it into the leg of my jeans. 

"Pull them up if you can," said Maxwell. "I'll grab your shoes. Hurry, before Trowa gets a chance to tell them he didn't do the job." 

"What's going on?" I asked as I wrestled with my hunger and my clothing. 

"We're getting out of here before we get arrested or killed," he replied, grabbing my foot roughly and shoving it into my shoe. My heel wasn't all the way in and he tied it uncomfortably tight, but I didn't complain. I lay down on the worn carpet and jerked my hips up to pull my jeans up the rest of the way and fastened them with shaky fingers as Maxwell hastily tied the knot on my other shoe. 

He put his arm under me again and pulled me to my feet. I stumbled as my heel settled into my shoe and he half drug me out of the motel room. Sirens sounded in the distance and he muttered a curse. 

"Why did you leave the girl alive?" he asked as he steered us towards the passenger door of a black trans-am. The engine was purring and the driver's side was open. He had left it running in his rush to...save me? 

"I don't kill," I said. 

Maxwell jerked the passenger side open and used one hand to guide my head as he bent his knees and eased me inside the car. The hunger roared in my ears, but there was nothing I could do to sate it; the only thing Maxwell radiated was concern. The last thing I heard before I blacked out, was the door slamming shut at my elbow and the last thing I thought of, was the way the man's fingers had felt, against the bare skin of my leg.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
I returned to consciousness slowly and wondered at the miracle of it. 

"Welcome back," a very smooth, very pleasant, very familiar, tenor voice murmured near my ear. 

"Maxwell," I gasped. 

"Duo," he said and scraped his teeth against my throat. "Call me Duo." 

I had so many questions, but the only thing to escape my lips was his name. It was a wanton plea to coax more than the bare whisper of carnal desire that radiated from him. We were lying on a soft surface, a bed of some sort, I couldn't concentrate enough to pick out anymore details beyond the naked body that was pressed flush against my bare flesh. 

"I can give you more," Duo purred. He placed one long finger on my chin and trailed it down the center of my chest. My body jerked of its own accord as he licked the curve of my jaw and tugged at the fine hairs that trailed down below my navel. 

"Please..." I looked at him pleadingly and I knew my eyes must have been dark with hunger. 

He smiled and picked up my hand, then guided it to the peak of his thighs. I coaxed his member to full arousal and the resulting flood of passion that washed over me was almost more than I could handle. 

I felt like a man who had been crawling through the desert for days, only to make it to the ocean. It was a boundless supply of what I craved...what I needed to survive...the temptation was too much and I drank deeply, knowing even as I did, that I was indebting myself even more to a man that Wufei had prophesied would kill me.   
  


* * *

TBC!   
Endnotes: That little limeyness will hopefully make up for the 1xR hints :P Chapters should also be longer from here on out now that the plot is actually gaining some momentum. ^_~ Also Character Pics for this fic should be up on my site in the next day or two. 


	5. Without the Torment of the Night's Untru...

Title: Son of the Sable Night   
Author: Ponderosa (ponderosa@dragonworld.com)   
Pairing: 1x2x1, Prior 5x1 

Archive: Take it if you want it, just tell me if you do!   
Warning: [R] 1x2x1. Yaoi. AU. Sexual Vampirism (Incubi). Heero POV. (Ch 5: Heero has been rescued by Duo and more of his past is dredged up.)   
Disclaimer: Characters belong to their respective copyright owners, like Sunrise/Sotsu/Bandai. Plot, if you can call it that, belongs to me. 

Note: **Yaoi**. Meaning: **guys with guys**. Don't like, then don't read.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
**Son of the Sable Night**   
by Ponderosa 

Sated, strengthened, suspicious; I took my time cleaning up, before I exited the bathroom to get dressed and face the man I had just had sex with. 

"You must have questions," said Duo. 

He stood by the window with a sheet wrapped loosely around his waist; the tip of his braid was cradled in the curving fold that shadowed the base of his spine. We were in a hotel room and I could see lights radiating out along the city streets below us. Which city and which streets, I didn't know. 

I started with the obvious, "Why aren't you weakened?" 

"I wouldn't give myself to you willingly if I didn't know what I was doing," said Duo. "Let's leave it at that for now." 

"The Hunter-" I faltered; I had a thousand questions about that man. 

"What was he?" Duo supplied. 

I nodded and moved aside an ashtray to take a wary perch on the edge of a small round table situated in the corner. 

Duo turned around and rubbed his neck, "What do you remember before Treize?" 

"What does that have to do with anything?" 

The man narrowed his eyes and tightened the sheet as it lowered a notch, "If you don't _want_ to answer, fine by me, but if you want to _get_ some answers, I need a place to start. And the beginning is fuck-all too long ago." 

We had a brief contest of wills, eyes burning into one another. He won. 

"I don't remember much. Writing, teaching maybe," I reluctantly told him. "Then the war started and I was sent to the camps. That was where I met Treize; he was a recruiter. I wasn't fit enough to be a soldier, so he convinced me to work in intelligence as a translator." 

"Anything before that?" Duo's eyes gleamed and I worried even more at the significance of my memories. 

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. 

"A man, with long blonde hair, so light it was almost silver," I told him. I couldn't summon a clear picture of him in my mind. I never could. It had been so long ago, but that was to be expected. That's how childhood memories are supposed to be, distant things that hold more emotion than clarity; like dreams. 

The only problem was, when I thought of the blonde man, I felt nothing; no connection to him at all. No sentiment, no unease, it was as if I was remembering a photograph of him, unlike the other figure that I could recall... 

"A woman, with blue eyes and a throaty laugh. I think her name was Sara. My mother perhaps." 

When I thought about her, it was with fondness, but I had only a single lucid memory of her and it always played out soundlessly like a scene from a movie: I look down at her and she's talking and smiling, then her eyes widen and her mouth opens in a silent scream. I could never remember what she said or what happened afterwards. 

Duo smiled wryly. "She wasn't your mother; and her name was Sally." 

Sally... The name felt right and repeating it in my head, I could almost hear her voice, shaping itself into words instead of the elusive laugh that rang in my dreams. 

"I didn't believe Wufei when he told me you'd forgotten everything," Duo said, interrupting my reflection. I watched him as he walked back to the bed, the sheet trailed along behind him like a bride's train. He propped a pillow against the wall and sat down, curling one leg beneath him and leaning back. 

"What do you think you are?" he asked me. 

I blinked. 

"Vampire? Incubus? Hellspawn?" Duo said, echoing my thoughts. 

"Treize made me, whatever I am." 

He sat quietly for a while, contemplating my answer. 

"You know then, that there are beings not entirely mortal," Duo began. 

No shit, I thought bitterly. 

"Unlike you or I, there are some that can't be killed... Trowa is one of those; he doesn't really exist on this plane." 

I was curious as to what he knew about Wufei, but more than that, I wanted to know why Duo had saved me. I asked him and he smirked. 

"I've been following you for weeks. If I had wanted to kill you, I would have already," he said. 

"So what are you? My guardian angel?" I snapped. 

Duo chuckled and I felt that odd tingle run across my skin, same as it had when I first noticed him, standing by the fireplace at that party. 

A knock sounded on the door and both Duo and I shot to our feet. I glanced over and saw he had the same matte black pistol in his hand, pulled from only God knows where. He held two fingers up, signalling for me to be quiet and stay still, then gently pulled loose the knot of the sheet and let it slide to the floor. 

His legs free of the potentially encumbering material, Duo moved silently towards the door. He hugged the wall and held the gun aimed at the patterned carpet; he had one finger on the trigger ready to fire, and his left hand was curled under the butt for accuracy. 

The impatient tattoo of a second knock sounded. 

"We didn't order any room service," Duo said, in a light, carefree tone that didn't match his expression in the least. 

"Maxwell, open the door." The voice was Wufei's. 

"Are you alone?" Duo asked. 

"On my honor." 

Duo's lips tightened and he adjusted his grip on his weapon. A few heartbeats later, he aimed the gun at chest height and reached out with his left hand to unlock the bolt and stepped back to let Wufei in. 

"Put that thing down," Wufei said, after he had closed the door; his eyes were angry and defiant as he stared past the barrel of Duo's gun into the other man's eyes. 

Duo kept his weapon trained on Wufei. "Where's your sword?" 

"I didn't bring it, Maxwell. I'm not here to kill either of you." His eyes narrowed slightly and he said, "You know my word is good." 

"I know by reputation that your word is good," Duo said, but he lowered his weapon. 

As soon as Duo's arm was down, Wufei burst into motion. He slammed himself against the braided man and pinned Duo against the wall with an arm under his chin. Wufei's other hand had gone to grab Duo's wrist and he dug a thumb into the nerve; the gun fell to the carpet with a soft thump. 

"Why didn't you tell me they didn't send you?" Wufei pressed his arm against Duo's throat harder with each word. 

"Wufei!" I ran over and tore him off Duo. 

My body was charged with energy. I hadn't fed so well in years and the power in my limbs was restored to the same level as it had been when Wufei was actively Hunting me. He recognized this and backed down, allowing the tension to bleed from him. His body regained its normal relaxed posture, although his eyes betrayed his fury and I held him for a moment longer, before I released my grip. 

"Not here to kill me, but you'll rough me up all you want, eh? Some sense of honor you've got there," Duo coughed. He bent and picked his gun up off the floor without taking his eyes off Wufei. 

"You didn't tell me who it was that sent you." 

"You didn't ask." 

"I shouldn't have had to," Wufei insisted. 

"You shouldn't have been sleeping with the enemy either," Duo countered. 

I felt confused and left out, but mostly, I was irritated. 

"Will you both shut up and tell me what the hell is going on?" 

Both men stopped their bickering and turned equally vicious glares at me; Duo looked rather less than threatening in his state of undress. 

"Stay out of this," they said in unison.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
I stayed out of it. 

I went to the window and tuned out their arguing after realizing that listening to it wasn't giving me anything but a headache. Eventually, they tired each other out and I turned around to find Wufei collapsed into a chair brooding, and Duo pulling on his clothes. 

"I'm taking Heero," said Duo. 

"To him?" Wufei asked, then shook his head, "Who else." His shoulders sagged and I saw him look weary for the first time, "Go. I'll face whatever consequences there are. I let him live this long already." 

I saw a smile of relief on Duo's lips, then he noticed I was listening again and the smile turned into a grin. He finished tying the laces on his boots and I caught the hilt of a knife disappear as he tugged the hem of his pants down. 

"You up for a nice long drive?" 

I considered my options. There weren't many. They essentially boiled down to: go with Duo, or, take my chances alone. I didn't precisely trust the longhaired man, but my entire being still ached with a strange attraction to him. Also, if I went with him, I might have a chance to learn a bit more about what was going on. 

"Who are we going to see?" 

"The other person you remembered before Treize," Duo answered. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wufei stiffen. 

He recovered swiftly and stood up, then walked over to me, lay a hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eye. "If you go with him, you may be placing yourself in more danger." 

"Duo, is it still Wednesday night?" I asked. I assumed it was because Duo had on the same clothes, but I had no idea how long I was unconscious. 

The braided man looked a little puzzled, but nodded. "Well, actually, Thursday morning, if you want to be specific; it's three past midnight." 

I nodded and returned my gaze to Wufei. "I'll take my chances and see you in eighty two days." 

Surprise flashed in his dark eyes, then he smiled slightly and stepped away fluidly. He smoothed the spot on my shirt where his hand had been and nodded, "Eighty two." 

"Don't forget that a second team has been dispatched. And, there are still others hunting him as well," Wufei said to Duo and I needled at being spoken about again as if I was invisible or beneath their notice. "More of Treize's faction." 

Duo smirked. "How do you think I found him in the first place?"   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
When Wufei was gone, Duo asked me if I knew how to fire a gun. 

"I may have been military intelligence, but they still taught me how to shoot," I replied. 

"That was fifty years ago," he pointed out. 

"I haven't forgotten," I assured him. I sounded more confident than I felt. 

He hefted a small black duffel onto the bed and opened it. Inside were neatly folded stacks of clothing and a small bag filled with the usual toiletries one carries when traveling. 

He slid his hand along the side, his fingernails made soft zipping sounds against the canvas, and then I heard something unsnap. Duo produced a second gun, identical to the one he carried, and offered it to me. I took it and weighed it in my hand. 

It felt cold, deadly, and fit perfectly in my grip. Out of a lack of anywhere else to put it, I did what he had earlier and tucked it in the back of my pants. 

"Not there," Duo said. He reached around me and pulled it free, then lifted my shirt and shoved it in the front of my waistband. "You're not used to it and you wouldn't be able to pull it out fast enough to make it useful." 

He saw the hesitation in my eyes and chuckled, "Don't worry, it's not going to go off by accident and shoot your balls off." 

I wasn't convinced, but I had checked the safety and forced myself to trust the mechanism. 

Duo had pulled my shirt back down, but it was a tight tee and only outlined the weapon instead of concealing it. His solution to that was to pull off his sweater and hand it to me. "Wear that." 

I obeyed, thrusting my arms into the tight sleeves and dragging it on. It smelled like him and the scent of it so close to me made me want him again. Seeing him bare-chested before me only amplified the feeling and I stepped forward, searching out his mouth with my own. 

"We don't have time for this now," he moaned. I could feel him try to bury his desire, even as his tongue twined against mine and his arms looped around to pull me close to him. 

We made time and gave each other pleasure by way of hands and lips. Trusting his words that he knew what he was doing, for the first time in a decade, I abandoned myself fully to pleasure. Still, I found myself gripped by fear after our mutual release and prayed that his heart wouldn't falter in its steady rhythm. 

"Now that they've gained a half hour on us, shall we decide to take the scenic route?" said Duo. 

He raised his head away from my chest and reached down to pick the sheet up off the floor and use it to wipe my seed off his hand. I didn't need to do the same, I had taken his body's gift within my mouth. 

"Is it any more dangerous?" 

"Only if you get hungry in the car and distract me so I end up driving us off a cliff." 

"Then the scenic route is good. It'll keep my hands off you." I tucked the gun back in my pants and pulled Duo's sweater over it again. "I have a fear of falling." 

He looked about to say something, then just shook his head and laughed as he zipped his pants back up.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
As soon as we got in his car, I started to think about Sally, trying to make sense of the image of her talking, smiling, then screaming. 

I hunched down in the bucket seat and nestled my chin into the turtleneck of the sweater I wore. I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I agonized over the shapes of words that grew ever clearer in the haze of my memory. 

The air near the window was cool, and I shifted to rest my temple against the glass in an attempt to counteract the air blowing out of the heater in the center of the dash. Duo had turned it on, when he turned the radio on. The music was easy to ignore, but the heat, although welcome at first, was making the inside of the car uncomfortably stuffy. 

Duo apparently thought the same and he switched the heater off before I did. Distraction gone, I returned to the task of dredging up the past. 

Two hours passed, and the sky was starting to lighten with the dim glow of false dawn, when things clicked and I finally had a sentence to show for my efforts. 

"...Heero, I'm so relieved that you understand my choice..." Sally's voice reached out to me across time. 

An ominous feeling clawed its way into my stomach and I swallowed as I realized why I remembered her screaming. 

"Forsaken no longer," my lips silently formed the words that I knew, with a sinking heart, I had said to her in response.   
  
  
-=*=-   
  
  
We gassed up in a one stop sign town and Duo left me alone with the car as he went across the street to a quaint grocery store to buy us something caffeinated. 

I paced back and forth a bit to stretch my legs, then leaned my body against the car and stretched my arms over the roof as I waited for him to return. The metal was comfortably warm and soaked into my skin. The heat made me feel drowsy and I stifled a yawn. 

Whatever I was, I still had the mortal failing that required me to sleep. I discovered that Duo was no different and I wondered if he was human after all. So far, the only thing he had done, that was truly extraordinary, was survive my hunger; though his connection with Wufei and his knowledge made it highly unlikely that he was merely human. 

I entertained myself with the possibility until he came back with a bag full of high caffeine energy drinks. He was already unwrapping a chocolate bar as we got back in his car and he deposited the bag on the floor of the car, next to my legs. He bit off the end of the candy bar, then held it out to me, "Want some?" 

I shook my head and grabbed one of the slim cans from the bag instead. I could eat, my body could process food, but I didn't need it. Dismissing another myth, I had no fear of the sun, I simply rarely went out during the day. The nature of my hunger suited itself better to the night and the emotions coming from large crowds of people were at times, difficult to process. 

Duo started the engine and looked over his shoulder as he backed out of the small gas station. "We'll hit the ocean by the end of the day," he said. 

"And then?" 

"We'll find a place to get a bit of rest. After that, it's a straight shot up the coast." 

"What's his name?" If I had a name, maybe I could remember more about the blonde man also. 

"He's got more than one," said Duo. He glanced over at me briefly. "You'd know him as Zechs." 

"Zechs..." I repeated the name, but nothing registered, so I stared at the ribbon of clouds that hovered above the horizon and contemplated what the future held.   
  


* * *

TBC!   



	6. Let Waking Eyes Suffice to Wail their Sc...

  
  
Title: Son of the Sable Night   
Author: Ponderosa (ponderosa@dragonworld.com)   
Pairing: 1x2x1, Prior 5x1, 1xR 

Archived at:  
http://www.1x2x1.org - Shinigami & Wing,  
http://stellarsoldiers.homestead.com/Fanfiction.html - Stellar Soldiers   
Warning: [R] 1x2x1. Yaoi. AU. Heero POV. Hunted by otherworldly beings and aided by a mysterious stranger and a man who's vowed to kill him, Heero struggles to unlock his past. (Ch 6: Duo is taking Heero to see Zechs, but the trip there isn't without obstacles..)   
Disclaimer: Characters belong to their respective copyright owners, like Sunrise/Sotsu/Bandai. Plot, if you can call it that, belongs to me. 

Note: **Yaoi**. Meaning: **guys with guys**. Don't like, then don't read. 

  
  
  
-=*=-  
  
  


**Son of the Sable Night**   
by Ponderosa 

The day went from comfortably warm to excruciatingly hot as our westward route found us racing through the California desert in the middle of the afternoon. I had long since stripped off Duo's sweater and was nursing my fourth can of a tangy high caffeine drink. The AC was busted and the air rushing in through the open windows was less than refreshing. I was thankful at least, that it was a dry heat. 

Duo and I hadn't spoken for a few hours and during that time I was plagued by my visions of Sally. It seemed that once I had remembered her death, I couldn't do anything to forget it again. On top of that, there were other little things filtering up in my mind; disturbing, haunting echoes of other faces. 

I twisted in the seat to try and get some air into my shirt and dry a bit of the sweat that had turned the back of my thin tee into an uncomfortably sticky second skin. 

"I killed her," I said and I watched Duo carefully to gauge his reaction. 

He didn't say anything, although I saw his fingers tighten on the wheel and his nostrils flared. 

"I was one of them....whatever they are. A Hunter." 

Duo still didn't respond. He slouched more in his seat and took one hand off the wheel to rest it loosely on the vibrating gearshift. I continued to watch him and finally, after about five minutes, he glanced over at me and nodded curtly. "Yes." 

"Wufei said he had protection against my Hunger. I take it, the same goes for you?" Duo nodded slightly and I settled back into my seat. "Then you were a Hunter as well." 

"In a manner of speaking." 

Short cryptic answers and the dusty taste of sorrow; things didn't seem much different than a day spent in Wufei's company. 

The road dipped down abruptly and I threw my hand against the dash to brace myself. Duo slowed down as the stretch of road turned into a series of small rises and sudden dips. The sun winked against the window of an oncoming truck, the first we'd seen in nearly an hour, and the quick flash of white blinded me momentarily. As I blinked away the spot to a dull green, I focused on the power bulge on the hood of the car. Eventually my eyes traced around the crimson wings that swept across the glossy black paint. I arched an eyebrow. Interesting...the wings didn't belong to the namesake firebird. 

I was about to comment about the custom detailing on the hood when a violent jolt nearly sent me flying forward. Duo's arm snapped up impossibly fast from the gearshift and caught my shirt. The neckline strangled me, but the fabric held and kept me from impacting against the window or the dash. I lost hold of my drink can and lime green droplets sprayed out all over the glove compartment. 

"What the hell was that?" I cried, hastening to fasten my seatbelt. Duo accelerated as we passed another rise. I dipped my head to look in the side mirror; the road was empty behind us. 

"We've got company," Duo said calmly. The engine growled as he sped up even more and he continually checked the rearview. "You keep watch so I can concentrate on the road." 

"I don't see anything," I said, as I reached out the window to adjust the side mirror for a clearer view. The butt of the gun was a reassuring presence against my stomach. 

"Keep your eyes on the sky, Heero," Duo said. 

Our vehicle was rocked with an impact and there was no need for me to ask my companion to explain what he had meant. 

Something had just touched down on the roof. 

  
  
  
-=*=-  
  
  


"Get your gun out and shoot!" Duo shouted. 

It was already in my hand and I was trying. A loud thunk sounded and the roof dented inwards. Duo's swerving made it hard for me to aim and I almost lost my grip entirely as the car lurched to the left. A high-pitched metal screech made me wince and I did my best to stop my arm from swaying wildly. I really didn't want to find out if the thing was trying to claw it's way inside. 

I emptied the clip into the ceiling of the car. 

The holes weren't in a nice cluster, but at least one bullet had done its job; dark blood was seeping in along and its sharp ferrous tang drew Duo's attention. He looked up and, once he saw the spreading stain, he spit a stream of violent curses and gestured at the glove compartment. The gunshots were still ringing in my ears, but I understood what he was trying to tell me and opened the glove box. Maps and papers spilled out and three full clips of extra rounds dropped heavily to the floor. 

I studied the gun, trying to figure out how the damn thing worked. Finally, I switched in a fresh clip. 

"Hold on!" Duo cried. He yanked up on the hand brake and the world began to spin. 

My head slammed into the side pillar as the car had squealed to a stop in the center of the road. Our aerial attacker lost its hold and I saw a flurry of broken and bloodied wings as it dropped onto the pavement on the driver's side. Duo grabbed the gun from my fingers and unbuckled his seat belt. He shoved his door open and his anger crackled in the air. I felt pinned to my seat by the overwhelming force of it. 

"Where's your other half?" Duo stared down at where our attacker lay near the front wheel well. 

"Reaper..." a voice rasped. It sounded vaguely female. 

"Last chance to tell me before I shoot out your knees and show you exactly why they call me that." The ominous sound of the gun being cocked followed Duo's ultimatum. 

"You turned your back on us before I really knew you. I regret that." 

"Yeah well, devotion isn't one of my strong points," Duo sneered and fired twice. 

I fumbled to get out of the car and Duo barked an order for me to stay put. I wanted nothing more than to disobey, but the dark look he favored me with gave me second thoughts about that idea. 

"Hold on to this, while I take care of business." He tossed the gun back to me as he reached into the rear seat and pulled a blanket free to reveal a sword. The weapon had a eastern hilt, wrapped with pure white braided silk, and was encased in a reddish lacquered scabbard adorned with rings. Duo smirked as he slid the blade free, and I tried to memorize the strange symbols engraved into the steel; it seemed all so very familiar. Duo caught my eye as he backed out of the car, "If we get more company, aim for the head." 

He kicked the door shut, and I could see Duo from the waist up as he aimed the sword at whatever it was that lay on the burning asphalt. He placed one palm pressed flat on the pommel, ready to drive it downward with all his weight, when a plaintive cry rang out, "Wait!" 

"Too little, too late," Duo scoffed and he adjusted his hold on the blade's hilt. 

"Trowa is back on Earth," the voice said in breathy defeat. 

"Already? He must have one bitch of a headache. How far behind us?" 

"I don't know, a few hours. I left him with Catherine." 

"Ahh... of course. How could I have forgotten Cathy," Duo hummed thoughtfully. "I guess that means you're alone." His beautiful, long fingers twitched slightly before he lifted his chin and spoke again. "Thanks for the info, but it's still too late." 

I saw the muscles in his arm bunch as he prepared to deal death and I was oddly relieved, when he was interrupted by a frantically honking horn. Duo snapped up and spun around; his braid whipped about and thunked against the side of the car. I stumbled out into the sun and squinted; expecting to see a car barreling down the road too fast to stop. Instead, I saw Wufei's midnight blue Lotus skid to a stop a respectable distance away. 

Duo kept the blade pointed down in one hand and he had his own gun drawn in the other. 

"Stay your hand, Maxwell," Wufei called as he emerged. A few inky strands of his loose hair fluttered across his face as he positioned himself behind the open door of his car, and used the top of the window to steady a pistol aimed at Duo. 

The two men stood frozen. If it hadn't been for the hot puffs of wind, it would've felt like time had stopped. Violet eyes landed on me for a split-second and urged me wordlessly for backup. I brought up the gun I held and trained it on Wufei. I wasn't sure I was making the right choice. 

"Stay your hand and I'll go with you. Unarmed," Wufei shouted. 

"No deal," Duo yelled back. I tightened my finger on the trigger and a bead of sweat trickled down between my shoulderblades. "If I agree," he kicked the being at his feet, "we'll be slowed down." 

I itched to move and see exactly what was lying there. 

"Shoot the woman and send her back immediately, or leave her here. It doesn't matter to me, but I'm offering you a better option than dying in the middle of the desert," Wufei cocked his head to the side. "With that flat, you won't get away from here before Quatre finds you." 

"He telling the truth, Heero?" 

I tried to grapple with the fact that Wufei had called whatever landed on our roof a woman, as I spared a look at the tires on my side of the car. The rear was half deflated and I could barely hear the low hiss of escaping air. As soon as I confirmed the flat, Duo snarled and backed down. 

"Shift," he ordered. I heard a weak groan, some whispering rustles, then a sizzling pop and the air filled with the smell of ozone. 

Duo tucked his gun in the back of his pants again and called me over. 

I stared at the woman bleeding sluggishly on the ground. She looked normal. Of course, so did I, and I was far from normal. 

"Help me get her into the car."   
  


* * *

TBC! 


End file.
